Server Change & Configuration Management software can be defined as a software application which attempts to help minimize total cost of ownership of server software, by managing updates and upgrades for such software
 

The target audience for this report includes corporate IT, corporate IT purchasing, IT consulting and vendor product marketing professionals
 

Information contained in this report concerning Server Change & Configuration Management softwarelist pricing, discounting practices and Total Cost of Implementation (TCI) was obtained through public domain sources, and telephone interviews with the vendors themselves, and with persons familiar with actual Server Change & Configuration Management software deals, May-July, 2004
 

The vendors taken into consideration for TCI are Altiris, CA, IBM, Microsoft, Novadigm, Novell, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems and Ximian
 

This report presents list pricing for all Server Change & Configuration Management (and Desktop Change & Configuration Management where appropriate) software for the 9 vendors taken into consideration, plus for BMC, for which no case studies could be carried out, representing over 250 distinct prices
 

List pricing includes Product name, Functionality, Purchased separately, License type, License unit, Price by unit or unit range
 

List pricing also includes detailed analysis of each vendor’s Maintenance/Support offering, and pricing
 

This report then goes on to summarize the essential aspects of 29 case studies of actual enterprise implementations of Server Change & Configuration Management software
 

In particular, Average TCI is analyzed for each vendor, composed of Average total license cost, Average maintenance/support cost (for the first year), Average initial development internal human resources cost, Average consulting cost, Average training cost and Average initial deployment internal human resources cost
 

Total Cost of Implementation averaged US$ 1,463 per managed server, although Vendor 1 was by far the lowest at US$ 277 per managed server, followed by Vendor 2 at US$ 232 per managed server (View the sample excerpt)
 

The report also compares Average Total Duration of Initial Development and Deployment, plus other metrics such as Average discount, Average number of servers managed and Average number of processors/Managed server